TM-EX NEWSLETTER TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION EX-MEMBERS SUPPORT GROUP Volume IV, No. 2, Spring 1992 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CANADA VEDA LAND Wide-eyed magician Doug Henning announced a proposed $1.5 billion theme park he's planning for Niagara Falls, Ontario. Based on the philosophy of Transcendental Meditation founder and Beatles guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Maharishi Veda Land will feature rides, illusions, a 7,000 student university and a housing development. Henning told a skeptical Toronto press corps that 1,400 acres of land have been purchased and he also hopes to build parks in Orlando, Fla., Japan and Holland. But while he wants the ambitious project to open in 18 months, Mr. Henning admitted only about half the $1.5 billion price tag has been raised. Although he claimed repeatedly there is a ``huge amount of interest'' in the park, Mr. Henning emphatically refused to reveal who the current and prospective investors are, saying his team has yet to finish writing an offering memorandum to be circulated to private investors. Mr. Henning told reporters he plans to approach the federal and provincial governments for money after the bulk of the investment is squared away. Although he insisted investment in the park will be 100 per cent Canadian, he acknowledged the $36 million spent so far was provided by the Maharishi Veda International organization, founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who lives in Holland. The perpetually perky performer became agitated when reporters pressed for more information about the financing, and he refused to discuss what level of federal or provincial government involvement he expected. However, the Ontario government already refused to get involved after the Veda Land team made a presentation last summer, said a spokesperson for the Tourism Minister. And Mr. Henning's claim that Niagara Falls will build and pay for highway overpasses and other infrastructure was quickly denied by Mayor Wayne Thomson, who sat at the podium with him. It was not immediately known whether yogic flyers would replace the helicopter rides over the falls. ``Magician plans guru-vy theme park,'' Reuters, April 18, 1992; ``Veda Land no illusion: magician,'' Emilia Casella, Hamilton Spectator, April 19, 1992; ``Doug's Ditzyland,'' UPI, April 19, 1992~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ UNITED KINGDOM TM's NATURAL LAW PARTY For voters driven to distraction by the relentless bickering of mainstream parties, Britain's political fringe offers a wide and wacky choice in the April 9 election. The Natural Law Party says transcendental meditation and yogic flying will cure the nation's ills. It also wants a health prevention system using natural biological rhythms. The party's candidates claim to be capable of yogic flying--levitation in the lotus position, which cynics say is no more than an energetic form of bouncing. But retired brothel-keeper Cynthia Payne, standing for her own Payne and Pleasure Party, has a totally different solution. Better known as Madam Cyn, she shot to fame after a vice trial involving policemen with their trousers down. Best-selling romantic novelist Barbara Cartland is seeking to rally support for Prime Minister John Major's Conservatives by claiming that a vote for opposition leader Neil Kinnock is a vote against Jesus Christ. Veteran rock `n' roll singer Screaming Lord Sutch is standing against as the head of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party. But Sutch, who campaigns in a zebra-striped top hat and a leopard skin suit stands no better chance of being elected than in any of the 34 elections he has fought over the past 30 years. Other crank groups include the Common Sense Party, the Jolly Small Brewers Party and the Forward to Mars Party, whose sole candidate, Charles Cockell, is trying to gather support for a manned space mission to colonise the red planet. Most candidates can expect to fall short of the five per cent of the vote they will need to save the $850 deposit they must put up. Giles Elgood, Reuters, April 1, 1992 [Editor's note: None of TM's Natural Law Party's 313 candidates received enough votes to save their $850 deposits. The average number of votes cast for each candidate totalled 200 (1)]~ (1)--TM InfoLine, UK ------------------------------------------------------------------------ IOWA MIU's designs on old air base raise suspicion: Plan Called `Greedy' An effort by Maharishi International University to obtain a sprawling Air Force base in eastern Illinois has angered city officials there who say the school betrayed them. MIU applied through the U.S. Department of Education to use most of the 2,174-acre Chanute Air Force Base for expansion of its Fairfield campus. The Air Force plans to close the base in September 1993. ``If we are to get it, the plan would be to use it for educational programs in addition to what we already have at MIU,'' university spokesman Robert Oates said Wednesday. Oates said the 800-student university is short on space for classrooms, faculty offices and scientific laboratories. It also cannot always accommodate the meditation assemblies it hosts four times a year. No-Cost Transfer MIU's academic program is infused with the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the Transcendental Meditation movement. The university, as a non-profit educational institution, is trying to obtain the air base and its buildings at no cost through a public benefit transfer. The mayor of Rantoul, Ill., called MIU's proposal ``greedy.'' ``They're asking for the whole property--lock, stock and barrel,'' Mayor Katy Podagrosi said. ``They're even asking for the fire station and the fire trucks.'' Rantoul is 10 miles north of Champaign-Urbana. It's a town of 20,700 that soon will be fighting for survival. When the base closes next year, the city will lose 8,000 residents and 65 percent of its economy. Podagrosi said the city needs commercial or diversified development--not a tax-exempt university--to help maintain its tax base. City officials were shocked that the MIU plan unveiled earlier this month did not come close to following one outlined by the city's Base Re-use Committee. The city wants 20 percent of the base used for educational purposes. The largest portion would be used for airport and aviation-related activities, with the rest used as green space and commercial and industrial developments. Podagrosi said MIU officials want nearly all the land, six 1,000-student dormitories, 1,400 single-family housing units and numerous office buildings. They also want to control streets and rights of way, indications they want to isolate themselves from the community, she said. Mark Siebert, Des Moines Register, April 23, 1992~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ OHIO MAHARISHI AYUR-VEDA RESEARCHER UNDER INVESTIGATION Ohio State University officials confirmed today that they are investigating the possibility of a conflict of interest involving a university faculty member. The investigation follows allegations raised in articles in the Journal of the American Medical Association involving researcher Hari Sharma, a professor of pathology, and his activities in connection with the Maharishi Ayur-Veda Association of America and/or Maharishi Ayur-Veda Products International Inc. The University has established procedures governing accusations of alleged conflicts of interest and those procedures are being followed. Such investigations are considered by the institution to be confidential in order to protect the individuals involved. As such, they cannot be discussed while the process in underway. According to the university guidelines on allegations of conflicts of interest, the institution progresses through three consecutive steps--preliminary investigation or review, a committee of inquiry, and a committee of investigation. The Sharma case is now at the second step. OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY NEWS RELESE, APRIL 24, 1992~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ USA OBITUARIES Emmett Malone, a 1979 Maharishi International University graduate, and teacher of TM, died in Winter 1991 of complications associated with a prolonged illness. Darrell Barry Osher, a self-employed puppeteer, died on Thursday, April 2, 1992, at his home in Ft. Washington, Maryland, at the age of 42. His companion, Neil Alexander, said he died of complications associated with AIDS. Osher graduated from Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa, in 1976 with a bachelor of arts degree in dance, after transferring from the University of Maryland at College Park. He moved to Washington, D.C. in 1983. Osher designed and controlled the marionettes and puppets used on the Prince George's Public Schools television show Look Out Kids, and also taught meditation as part of Maharishi International University's Transcendental Meditation Program. Contributions in his name may be made to Food and Friends, P.O. Box 70601, Washington, D.C. 20024. Joanne (Porter) Stromm died December 28, 1991, after a protracted battle with breast cancer. Jody graduated from the MIU Class of 1979 (except for TM-related fieldwork). She was 38 years old.~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CANADA New Age theme park will fly, yogi vows Maharishi Mahesh Yogi laughed in his squeaky, little voice. The subject wasn't particularly funny. We were discussing how a US man successfully sued his organization, Transcendental Meditation, for false advertising. The courts ruled that ex-devotee deserved $130,000 because various arms of the Transcendental Meditation's far-flung empire hadn't lived up to the Maharishi's promise to make the man fly. The ex-follower must have been a ``very anxious man,'' the former guru to the Beatles said in a telephone interview. ``You know, some planes fly, others don't.'' And he giggled. He sounded as if he didn't have a care in the world. He seemed kind of cute. Then the Maharishi--who is currently focusing a great deal of his energies on Canada--made a breathtaking statement. The man who believed TM could make him levitated, the Maharishi said, had made the mistake of ``expecting too much.'' Expecting too much? The Maharishi is the grand master of creating stupendous expectations. He is the man who this week announced, with the help of Canadian magician Doug Henning, he was going to build a $1.5 billion theme park in Niagara Falls that would ``create enlightenment for individuals.'' Among other wonders, it would have buildings floating in air and take millions of fairgoers on a chariot trip into a molecule. This is the same man who once graced the covers of Time, Life and Look magazines and who took out double-page newspaper ads last month telling Prime Minister Brian Mulroney he had the solution to Canada's constitutional crisis. All the government had to do was get 7,000 people gathered in one place practising ``yogic flying'' (which, in reality, looks like hopping). This is the man who a few years ago also asked a big gathering of Canadian entrepreneurs to build a $100 trillion ``heaven on earth''--a string of lavish cities around the world where people will live in bliss. Nothing has come of ``heaven on earth,'' the same way no visible signs have been produced of the Maharishi's many other extravagant, apparently well-meaning, schemes. In the 1960s, when the Maharishi last lectured in B.C.--''a very receptive land for knowledge,'' he said--he had a plan that would soon see the world's almost four-billion people practising TM. But since those heady days, when the Maharishi was in the spotlight with Mia Farrow and The Beatles (who left the Maharishi after concluding he was merely human), the Indian-born mystic hasn't lost his knack for publicity. This charming elderly man, who is estimated to be 81, though he isn't telling, promised this week his meditating technique will end world suffering. People who practise TM, he said, don't even get in car accidents. They live in a ``bubble of bliss.'' Suffering, he said, ``is absolutely not necessary.'' He made it sound so easy. The contemplative technique of TM does provide some modest health benefits, scientists say. A Harvard University study suggested old people who practise it live a little longer than others and enjoy a certain calmness of demeanor. But simply helping people relax and overcome stress is not enough for those marketing the Maharishi. His followers practise hyperbole with abandon. They boast of the media attention their guru still grabs--and say things such as his ``impact on Canadian life has spanned seven prime ministers and has transformed the life and style of the country.'' The odd thing is, after all TM's extraordinary claims and self-promotion, the Maharishi still manages to come across as sincere. Trying to understand his quiet, accented words during the interview, listening to his followers sing 10 minutes of haunting Vedic chants through the long-distance line from TM headquarters in the Netherlands, he seemed kind of harmless. This man, who claims four million followers worldwide, seemed more like a dreamy, naive, idealist more than anything else. And there is always the possibility that maybe, just maybe, he's right. Yet, there's a dark side to great expectations. Over the years, The Vancouver Sun has received calls from bitter former devotees who feel TM is a cult that stole years from their lives. And TM announcements a few years back about the Maharishi building a huge Veda theme park in Orlando, Fla.--which has gone nowhere--have led to accusations the Maharishi's people were promoting the project to speculate on land. Anyway, why would a serious Indian mystic even want to create a theme park anywhere, let alone at Niagara Falls? Why did disgraced US televangelist Jimmy Bakker build Heritage Theme Park, one of the biggest fairs in the world? What did that have to do with Christ being crucified on the cross and teaching love your neighbor as yourself? The Maharishi doesn't seem to mind such questions. He really is quite likeable. Maharishi Veda Land--which Henning says will provide 5,000 permanent jobs when it opens in a couple of years--will bring people to TM, he said. It will ``provide a model of enlightenment for the whole world.'' After people go to the park, the Maharishi said ``it will be very difficult for them to continue to suffer. They'll see the nature of life is to enjoy.'' Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, March 23, 1992~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TEXAS Meditation center destroyed by fire The abandoned Dallas-Fort Worth Capital of the Age of Enlightenment, a transcendental meditation center, was destroyed by a suspicious fire, officials said yesterday. The 55,000-square-foot, Indian-inspired structure with 14 golden domes and 108 rooms burned to the ground Friday, said Montague County Sheriff Glenn Watley. The structure was located about 60 miles northwest of Dallas. Sheriff Watley said the fire was suspicious because it spread so quickly. Fire departments from five communities fought the fire but were too late to save the frame-and-stucco building. It was abandoned as a weekend retreat about 18 months ago and has been without a caretaker since last summer, said realtor Renee Thrasher. The guru's movement was seeking $2.8 million in 1985 for the property but had dropped the asking price to $500,000 recently, Miss Thrasher said. The Washington Times, January 12, 1992~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ UK Beatle Mania: George and Ringo draw raves, few votes When the reclusive George Harrison emerged from his country mansion at Henley-on-Thames for his first extended British concert since the Beatles performed on the roof of their London recording studio in 1969, the singer-guitarist's aim was to promote the Natural Law Party. The audience Monday night at the Royal Albert Hall, however, had just come to see and hear George. And much to its general delirium, Mr. Harrison brought Beatles drummer Ringer Starr along with him. The Natural Law Party, with 313 candidates in today's election, is a branch of the Transcendental Meditation movement of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, once the Beatles' favorite Indian guru. But Mr. Harrison, 49, could have been a Socialist Worker or unreconstructed Thatcherite; the sold-out crowd of 5,000 would still have bought their $35 tickets. They applauded politely as party leader Geoffrey Clements took the stage to announce his vision of ``a beautiful new country, a beautiful new Britain and a beautiful new United Kingdom.'' But Mr. Harrison did not get past ``Thank you, good evening'' before they were on their feet. ``All we need now is to get rid of all those stiffs in Parliament, and we'll be happy,'' he said in the sum total of his rhetoric. ``We came for the music,'' said a student, 19. The evening would do nothing for her voting intentions, she explained--she'd already checked off the box marked Liberal Democrats in a postal vote. Nonetheless, it was a public relations triumph for Britain's youngest party. ``I don't really know what they stand for,'' Ringo told reporters Monday. ``I saw George this morning...and he wasn't really sure what they stood for either,'' the drummer added. ``But he didn't like what the others stood for.'' Robert Hardman, London Daily Telegraph, April 9, 1992~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NEW YORK ROARK LETTER Dear [TM-EX]: This is to confirm to you our previous discussions regarding my time as Chairman of the Physics Department at Maharishi International University. As you know, since then I have ceased doing TM and I am Chairman of the Physics Department at a small liberal arts college [in the Pacific NW]. During my time at MIU, I had occasion to examine the scientific claims of the movement, to interact with those who had reportedly performed the research, to study the metaphysics, philosophy and religion associated with the TM technique, and to work with the founder of the movement and the college. It is my certain belief that the many scientific claims both to factual evidences of unique, beneficial effects of TM and to theoretical relationships between the experience of TM and physics are not only without any reasonable basis, but are in fact in many ways fraudulent. I will briefly try to detail a few of these errors and false claims in this letter. While serving on the faculty I discussed the EEG work which purported to show ``increased brain wave coherence while practising the flying technique'' with one of the faculty investigators who had participated in the development of the study, Dr. Michael Dillbeck. My suspicions were generated by knowing the near impossibility of making EEG measurements of weak electric signals coming from an array of electrodes attached to the > subject's scalp while the subject is moving. (The claims and advertisements show a picture of an apparently ``flying'' meditator alongside the claimed coherent brain wave pattern. The initial claim of ``flying'' as my personal experience discovered is merely an energetic muscular ``hopping.'') The TM investigator confirmed to me that contrary to the implied claim, the pattern displayed was not of the flying or hopping meditator since the measurement was indeed impossible. A similar degree of deception is to be found in the movement's claimed reduction of crime and other negative social phenomena if enough people in a country or in the world begin to meditate. Confirmed to me by investigators at MIU was the suppression of negative evidence that these investigators had collected. Strong bias was present in selecting only data favourable to a conclusion that was made prior to the data collection. Because of the strong authoritarian (essentially cultic) aspects of the movement, only results supporting ideas generated by the movement leadership could receive any hearing. The ``scientific research'' is without objectivity and is at times simply untrue. While Chairman of Physics at MIU, I was asked to develop a quantum theory, a unified field theory, which would incorporate consciousness in such a way as to explain the ``flying'' technique as non-ordinary and which would give to the subjective experience of meditation a fundamental role in physics. I found then and I continue to find now such claims preposterous. This is what is normally called ``crackpot science.'' Although there is substantial work in the physics of quantum mechanics giving to consciousness an essential role, even a causal role, there is no evidence or argument that could connect some sort of universal consciousness to be subjectively experienced with a unified field of all physics. In fact, the existing scientific work suggests just the opposite. If consciousness can be talked about at all with regard to the physical world, then it must be in the sense of lying wholly outside of the physical system. Of course quantum mechanical explanations of ``flying'' in such a way as to suggest that this ``flying'' is an apparent violation of the simpler laws of nature, such as gravity, is entirely inappropriate because nothing unusual is happening in the ``flying'' technique which is only hopping. (On the psychological level, something unusual and probably dangerous is happening during this and other advanced TM techniques.) The early attempts to relate the experience of TM to the physical nature of reality were by fuzzy analogies. Analogous reasoning may be useful to clarify ideas, but never to establish connecting relationships. Subsequent attempts to produce some sort of physical theory involving TM merely carry the analogies further into the realm of obscure thinking that can perhaps fool the person not conversant with the language of physics but will be usually quickly described as crackpot by the expert physicist. My belief is that TM is in its practise and in its theories religious in nature and is based on a pantheistic Hinduism that has been reformulated to make it attractive to Western minds. We in the West have great respect for science and often look to science and technology to explain our world and to solve our problems. (We probably have an over-reliance on science in fact and may turn it into a religion itself.) By TM claiming to be scientific in a most fundamental way, it tries to demand of us a respect we reserve for things thought scientific, rational, efficient, and effective. Under the guise of this false scientific claim then, Hinduism seeks its entrance into our lives. Many innocent individuals who sought only for an effective (scientific) relaxation technique are then exposed to the real dangers of this TM technique and to the misleading philosophy and metaphysics claimed by its proponents. Sincerely, Dennis E. Roark, Ph.D.~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ INDIA A Visit to the Shankaracharya, Part II On a warm Autumn evening, in Vrindaban, India, he answered the following questions which I and others asked him: [The following transcript is taken directly from the taped conversations. Translations were provided concurrently by an interpreter.] Questioner: The religion that Guru Dev (Mahesh's teacher) preached was connected with five forms of God--Devatas--such as Pancha Devupasana and so what relation has it with Vedic Sanatan Dharma (worship of God) as well as in regard to the ``Varna'' (caste system) and ``Aashram'' (four stages of life) systems? Shankaracharya: The Lord, Adi Shankara was a great exponent of Vedic Sanatan Dharma. God, he taught, is grouped into six forms. He preached six types--five based on forms of God like Shiva, Shakti, Vishnu, etc. and one, Nirakar, without form. However, the worship of God without form being extremely difficult was reserved for renunciates. That is what Adi Shankaracharya had instructed. Bhagavan Shree Shankara revived Vedic Sanatan Dharma. He said God has six forms. So accordingly, Maharaji (Guru Dev) gave ``upadesh'' (initiation) to meditate upon those forms for the sake of our worship. Questioner: My Lord, Shankaracharya Brahmananda Saraswatiji Maharaj (Guru Dev), who is our ``pujapaad'' (whose feet are worthy of our respect), who is ``brahmaleen'' (absorbed in Brahma, the omnipresent form of God) who is presiding over the Jyotish, who is the teacher of the entire universe--that he (Guru Dev) used to instruct mantras to his disciples. I would like to know which mantras were those? Shankaracharya: The Lord, Shankaracharya Brahmananda Saraswatiji Maharaj (Guru Dev) strictly adhered to the ``Varna'' (caste) and ``Aashram'' (four stages of life) systems. He believed in one's Varna (caste) by birth. Whosoever came to him to become a disciple, he used to ask him which form of God he was in love with. Whichever form the new disciple had an interest in, that form he would explain to the new disciple. [Guru Dev] used to explain, Either you should depend on your own inclination or else, he, after understanding your previous life and which form of God you worshipped then, would instruct the initiate accordingly. Without having an ``IshTadevataa'' (a personal form of God), no one could have a ``Mantra'' (name of God) from him. The very meaning of Mantra is IshTadevataa (a personal form of God). Therefore, along with every mantra, thinking or reflecting over the form of the IshTadevataa is essential. Therefore, in all the modes of worship, one reflects over one's IshTadevataa before chanting or meditating with one's mantra. Questioner (to interpreter): Can you explain to Maharaji (The Shankaracharya) that I was trained by Mahesh Yogi as a teacher of TM, and I can explain to him what I was taught. I don't understand whether or not what I was taught is correct. Explain to him that I was given 16 mantras, by Maharishi that I can pronounce to Maharaji. I will pronounce them one after the other as I was trained. They are to be given out by certain ages. I can read them to Maharaji and then he can comment whether they are correct or incorrect. If he can explain how they are supposed to be used, or whether they are supposed to be used or not. Eng, em, enga, ema, aing, aim, ainga, aima, hiring, hirim, kiring, kirim, shiring, shirim, shyam, shyama. Shankaracharya: It's like this. Here we have each mantra connected with one god. There lies the bija mantra. That bija mantra is for that god. Questioner: Mahesh Yogi's mantras are of one [sound] each, for instance, eng, em, enga, ema, aing, aim, etc. These are given by age or sex. This is not the teachings of the Vedas or Scriptures, what is your opinion? Shankaracharya: We do join Bija Aksharas (single syllabled names/sounds) to the mantras. But, Bija Aksharas also mean IshTadevataas (names of the personal forms of god). The kind of process you just described is purely imaginary and it has no connection with our Scripture of the Shankaracharya tradition. Bija Akshara is connected with IshTadevataas to make it a mantra. These have relevance with the Scriptures, a tradition. Whatever Mahesh does in this respect has no relevance to Shastra (Scriptures). Robert Kropinski~ -TO BE CONTINUED- [Editor's note: The Author is a former teacher of TM. He filed a lawsuit against the TM movement on the grounds of fraud, which was settled out of court in 1991. After leaving the TM movement in 1983 he joined another Eastern group, International Society of Divine Love, ISDL. He has since left ISDL, and is no longer interested in pursuIng his spiritual life under the control of a guru.]~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WASHINGTON D.C. Head for the Hills, Disciples! TM's Maharishi holds out no hope for D.C. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi would like a word with you: Flee! Spurned by federal officials and the District government, the Indian monk has abandoned his decade-long effort to lower the city's crime rate and, not incidentally, promote world peace through collective meditation. Now he has a recommendation for anyone who moved to the Washington area to participate in that experiment: ``I would not advise anyone to stay in the pool of mud,'' the founder of the Transcendental Meditation movement said in a telephone interview from his European headquarters in Vlodrop, the Netherlands. ``Save yourself from the criminal atmosphere...At least be there only during office [meditation] hours.'' After the failure of the TM movement's latest campaign to enlist government support for a collective meditation program, the movement closed its national office at 5000 14th St. NW in August and moved its staff to Fairfield, Iowa, site of Maharishi International University. Within several months, movement leaders were advising those who could to move out of the Washington area. ``People were given to understand it is like living near Chernobyl,'' said Robert M. Oates Jr., director of public affairs at Maharishi University. ``All of the stress of the world's collective consciousness impinges on D.C. Plus the incredible rate of violence. You're not talking about the ideal spot.'' Those who could not leave the area were advised to leave the city if at all possible. That suggestion, local meditators say, prompted 20 to 40 of the most committed meditators to put their houses on the market. To the uninitiated, it may seem that the TM movement has simply adopted the sentiment that launched a thousand subdivisions. But members of the nation's second-largest TM community behind Fairfield see the movement's departure as a frustrating end to an idealistic experiment. Transcendental meditators began converging here in the early 1980s in an effort to create the ``Maharishi effect.'' The movement's high point here came in the mid-1980s, when more than 400 sidhas, or advanced meditators, lived in the area. In addition to the national office and the College of Natural Law, the movement or those affiliated with it also ran several private elementary schools, clinics, TM teaching centers and three group meditation facilities. In July 1985, about 5,500 meditators from across the country gathered on the Mall in one of the largest TM conventions ever held. By late 1986, however, the College of Natural Law had become a financial burden. The closing of the college began the movement's slow decline in this area. Last spring, as the United States moved toward war against Iraq, TM's national leaders mounted one final attempt to win government financing for a large group of meditators, whose efforts, they believed, would remove the risk of war. When that proposal, which one meditator said would have cost roughly $20 million, failed to gather support, movement leaders closed their headquarters and went to Iowa. ``The government should follow us to Iowa,'' Oates said. ``We'd encourage them to be as close as possible to our domes here.'' The Maharishi is predicting a dire future for a city without the pacifying effects of collective meditation. Jim Naughton The Washington Post, December 16, 1991~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ IOWA Prisons to get fuller Under the most optimistic conditions, Iowa's already jammed prisons will see their population grow by another 12 percent in the next five years, according to new projections. And, the projections show, that number will nearly double if get-tough political rhetoric becomes law. The projections were prepared by the Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning to tell officials what effect changes in the law have on prison population. The projected prison population dwarfs capacity. [Agency head Richard] Moore said the projections were based on assumptions that include no major changes in criminal law and ``no catastrophic disruptions such as war or major economic depressions.'' That's a fairly optimistic assumption. With most polls showing voters deeply worried about crime and drugs, the Legislature and Gov. Terry Branstad have moved repeatedly to approve tougher sentences for more crimes, and there's already discussion of more. Fairfield Ledger, September 12, 1991~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WASHINGTON D.C. MEDITATING POLICE ABANDON POST There are various theories about the real reason the Maharishi told his people to pack up and head for the pure air of Iowa. One is he got nowhere with petitions to President Bush to deposit $1 billion in TM coffers so TM advanced meditators could meditate full-time inside the Beltway or beyond. Oates told me TM's technology is more than enough to pacify D.C.: ``The problem,'' he said is strictly economic. We need to create a profession of paid peace meditators.'' The group that seems to be really thriving in D.C. is ex-TMers. A volunteer with TM-EX, a support group for former TMers, told me their mailing list numbers about 5,000. She also said TM sold its downtown D.C. national headquarters building for more than a $24 million profit and she has the tax returns to prove it. According to [TM-EX], the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and a congressional subcommittee are all investigating Maharishi's movement for fraud. Also it seems some TM docs in England and elsewhere have been implicated in dispensing phony AIDS treatments. The 18-year [former] TM member remembers seeing tapes of the Maharishi telling them if they left the movement, they would be responsible for [world] disaster. He also coached them over and over to speak only ``the sweet truth'' to non-members. But apparently even the ``sweet truth'' couldn't produce much of a change in the mud pool that is Washingon. ``Yogi: Sleazy D.C. No Place To Call `Om,''' Jane Furse, New York Post, December 18, 1991; ``The Maharishi advises flight,'' Tony Lang, Cincinnati Enquirer, December 22, 1991; ``Guns, violence are a daily part of life for many D.C. residents,'' Cox News Service, December 29, 1991; ``Meditation center moves to Bethesda,'' Karen Jorgensen, Bethesda [MD] Gazette, December 31, 1991; ``Maharishi seeks a few good fliers,'' Michael Hirsley, Chicago Tribune, January 3, 1992; ``Maharishi has a capital idea for peace,'' Michael Hirsley, Chicago Tribune, January 8, 1992; ``Maharishi has a plan for universe,'' James Dempsey, Telegram & Gazette [MA], February 7, 1992~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ``Washington is the most important city in the world for 200% of life. Your career, your family, and your most ambitious desires grow in perfect step with the evolution of your consciousness and your country.'' ``The virtues of life in America: natural beauty, variety, creativity are the virtues of life in Washington too. When you live here, you really feel like America's child.'' ``The `Six in One' Video,'' MIU, 1985; ``Washington, D.C., 200% of Life,'' WPEC, 1986~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ RUSSIA Russia's Religious Revolutionaries This much is certain: the former USSR is experiencing a grand and tumultuous spiritual revival. After hibernating during decades of political repression and an official ideology that insisted all religion was exploiting and opiating the masses, the soul of Mother Russia has awakened. Russian Orthodox churches are filled with passionate believers, young as well as old, and there is an immense resurgence of interest in Judaism, Islam, and other traditional religions. And there are the new religions and New Age movements. During a recent stay there, I personally encountered Soviet citizens who were members of or had been approached by the following groups: The Unification Church (Moonies), the Hunger Project (a spin-off of est), Hare Krishnas, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Scientologists, and practitioners of Transcendental Meditation. Plus various Christian fundamentalist groups, and many individual astrologers, fortune tellers, and healers. In the West, New Age/new religion involvement is often a privilege of the middle and upper middle classes--whether it is a reasoned attempt at self improvement and spiritual growth or a desperate escape from an overly materialistic, spiritually barren existence. In the West, one's spiritual path is very much a matter of individual choice, and of having the time and resources to pursue that choice. Soviet society, however, does not have the luxury of seminars, retreats, and brain synthesizers of its spiritual seekers. Alienated from their past, pessimistic towards the present and future, lacking trust in its leaders and faith in Utopia ideologies, the Russian spirit is burdened with anger, apathy, despair and cynicism. The vast majority spend an average of four hours a day in line to buy basic necessities such as bread and meat. Meanwhile, for-dollar-only shops, filled with scarce Russian and Western good, are frequented by a small Soviet entrepreneurial class that is inflated with Western ambitions. Why do Soviet families wait in line for hours for the dubious privilege of spending a full-day's salary on Big Macs at Moscow's McDonald's? Simply because it is a glimpse ahead into a distant and desperately desired future. It's from the West and it works. One avenue of escape from the daily gloom is quite literally to escape, i.e. emigrate to the West. But you need money, connections, and a visa. Others, trapped so long in the dungeons of despair, choose the inner journey, the spiritual path. For them, the lanterns shine brighter than they have for many years. Glasnost has opened many locked gates. Citizens may now freely discuss and explore the potentials of human consciousness and spiritual growth. Four hours a day in line means plenty of time for reading these New Age instruction manuals, and time as well for prayer, reflection, visualization and mantra. In the West we have learned sobering lessons about the pitfalls of too eagerly following any one path, of surrendering one's ego, will, and possessions to any one group or leader. Of opening the heart at the expense of closing the mind. Everyone knows about Hitler and Stalin with their brute indoctrination and brute punishment for ``unbelievers.'' Very few know about the modern-day subtleties of mind-control, of subliminal advertising, and of milieu control and love-bombing by cult groups. Most Russians have heard of Disneyland. Very few have heard of Jonestown. Michael Epstein, Magical Blend, October 1991, ~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ USA Gimme That New-Age Religion Heaven on Earth: Dispatches From America's Spiritual Frontier, By Michael D'Antonio The children of the `60s are getting to the age when they need the comfort of religion. They want relief from pain and confusion, and they wouldn't mind at all a firm promise that an afterlife exists. In Heaven on Earth, Michael D'Antonio, Newsday's Pulitzer-winning religion reporter, takes a look at the collection of freelance enterprises that make up New Age spirituality. Some 15 million mostly educated and well-off Americans find Born Again Christianity too tacky, Protestantism and Judaism too suburban and Catholicism too papal. In New Age spirituality, institutes and seminars take the place of churches, healing spas stand in for Lourdes, and the life story that really matters isn't that of Buddha or Jesus or Mohammed, but your own. The New Age influence is spreading; most of us are already convinced of the calming effect of meditation, and many believe in the influence of the mind on the body's immune responses. (The power of crystals and the wisdom of spirit guides are harder to swallow, Shirley MacLaine notwithstanding.) A sort of Paul Theroux of the spiritual world, D'Antonio spent a year traveling to New Age centers. He goes on the $50 tour of the vortices of Sedona, Ariz., but fails to have a vision. He shares a campsite with a very likable witch protesting logging in Sequoia National Forest, loses his taste for ice cream when he explores New Age capitalism at Ben and Jerry's Vermont factory, and is bored by an excess of goodness at Ananda Village, a Northern California yogic utopia. The New Age Mecca where D'Antonio felt most uncomfortable was Iowa's Maharishi International University, founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. MIU was, and still is, seeking $1 billion to support 7,000 meditators who could create ``a very big wave of convergence'' and thereby guarantee world peace. For the first time in his travels, the admirably tolerant D'Antonio has found people he believes to be truly deluded. He hates the control the Maharishi exerts over his followers, and is infuriated because the MIU physics department is teaching theories he believes are dead wrong. Though D'Antonio intends to be more inquiring than challenging, he reveals that some New Age groups are best with the same flaws that haunt the old religions. Particularly stubborn is the irresistible need of spiritual leaders to manipulate other people (accompanied by the tremendous temptation to make money doing it.) D'Antonio takes a close look at the belief held by the folks at Maharishi International University that their mass meditation is responsible not only for the unification of Germany and the liberation of Estonia, but also for a reduction in crime in nearby Fairfield, Iowa. D'Antonio asks the Fairfield police chief to dig out his records; they show a steady increase in crime from 1980 to the present. In fact, the police chief says, the presence of MIU resulted in a big increase in traffic problems. D'Antonio is able to probe and judge, but he's also willing to be a participant. He's a game guy and an engaging spiritual travel-writer, and we're glad to stick with him through his year-long pilgrimage. Though he says that his own metaphysical beliefs ``begin and end with the assumption that there are mysteries none of us can fathom,'' D'Antonio concludes that many New Age explanations work, for those who believe. He has faith in faith, whatever flavor, if it eases despair and gives meaning to life, and death. Constance Casey, The Washington Post Book Review, February 2, 1992~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MASSACHUSETTS FORMER TM'er MAKES GOOD One of the abiding heroes of the personal computer revolution has found a new focus for his considerable energy and personal fortune: the creation of a coast-to-coast electronic data network reaching into every American home. Now 40, the garrulous, self-deprecating Kapor deserves much of the credit for PCs' explosion into a global business a decade ago. It was the smash hit Lotus 1-2-3 accounting program that he codeveloped that helped transform the machines from hobbyists' gadget into a business tool that every company had to have. Kapor has crafted a second career in philanthropy and political activism. His current data network project is an outgrowth of the Cambridge, Mass.-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, which he and other computer industry luminaries created in 1990. The group's declared purpose is to safeguard freedom of speech in emerging computer networks and to make the technology available to all. Kapor, whose background includes study at Yale and MIT, a stint as a disc jockey and as a teacher of transcendental meditation, helped found Lotus Development Corp. in 1982, and became a rich man as its sales rocketed to almost $300 million within three years. He says he came away from [TM] wondering ``Where's the beef?'' He said he found that his TM experience gave him ``a profound appreciation of the usefulness of paradox,'' which he described as being ``able to do two apparently contradictory things quite well.'' But he also felt that while the teachings were profound, ``many...of the people most associated with the organization did not exemplify those ideals. The lesson that it left me with was, if you can't measure up by what you do...as opposed to what you speak about, then you're not worth spit.'' Kapor was also disillusioned by TM's claim to be able to teach advanced students how to perform super-normal feats. ``I bailed out right at the time they got seriously into levitation, which is a crock,'' he said. ``They don't fly, take it from me.'' ``Executive Criticizes TM,'' Boston Globe Magazine, February 27, 1985; ``Lotus Founder Still Chases His Dreams,'' The Washington Post, February 28, 1992~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CALIFORNIA We Have Always Lived In Beverly Hills I learned to give lectures on TM. I started speaking at the meditation center on Gayley Avenue in Westwood. I felt for the first time I had a purpose. What I was doing seemed to matter. I believed that I was helping people and at the same time I was being helped. I was drinking less and using drugs less often, sometimes going for months at a time without getting high. I found a group of friends I liked and who liked me. There was a hierarchy here, but I had a chance of being a part of that hierarchy rather than just a fringe performer. My parents had a noncommittal attitude toward the whole thing. They were just pleased that I was still alive and had all my limbs. My brother had his own problems deciding about how to do his service and avoid Vietnam at the same time, which he managed ultimately by joining the Air National Guard. I assisted his mental and emotional state by drawing a mandala on a piece of paper, sending to him in boot camp, and instructing him to stare at it for hours at a time until his mind turned to bean dip. It must have worked like crazy, as he came straight out of the service and became an award-winning screenwriter, while I was putting out hotel fires in Spain. But that was later. I still had to work my way into the inner circle around Maharishi. The trick was to perform some useful function, something that would get me noticed. I had become aware, from that first day when I saw him driven up in the Plymouth, that being around him meant playing a part in his personal ritual. Most striking to me had been the ritual of The Skin. When the car pulled up, both Jerry Jarvis and Charlie Lutes, the president of the Spiritual Regeneration Movement, had jumped out, waited impatiently for Maharishi to exit, then dove back into the car for something inside. They both, from opposite side of the car, got a hand on whatever this thing was at exactly the same time and commenced a tug-of-war. After a brief tussle, Jerry emerged victorious, holding in his hand what I took at first to be a leather jacket. It turned out to be an unremarkable bit of tanned deer hide whose significance I did not at first diagnose. I soon learned that this was no ordinary deerskin; this was The Skin upon which Maharishi sat. Always. Without exception, wherever Maharishi went, he never sat down on anything without this deerskin being placed down first. It performed the function, I supposed of a spiritual buffer, jamming the negative vibes from any previous set of buttocks. Evidently buttocks never knew if the haunches of the previous sitter belonged to a smoker, for instance, or a meat eater, or a Democrat, any one of which could apparently annihilate the divine radiance emanating from the sacred set of cheeks upon which the Master himself sat. These tamasic gluteal reverberations, echoes of bottoms past, would presumable wreak spiritual havoc with Maharishi's holy keister; therefore, the skin was always placed upon whatever spot he was going to sit, just moments before he actually sat. It was a sort of Strategic Defense Initiative for the rusty-dusty, shooting down and deflecting dangerous low-vibe missiles and sending them crashing back into the cushions. When Maharishi rose again, this skin was swept up and carried to the next spot favored posteriorly by the guru. The nearest I could figure was that the guy who carried The Skin was The Guy. I vowed then and there to get that job. From the book by Ned Wynn, 1990, Wm. Morrow & Co.~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NEW YORK NEWS MEDIA DECEIVED: Maharishi Ayur-Veda Laurel to the Journal of the American Medical Association, for a fine piece of corrective surgery after a botched operation. Upon discovering that its May issue contained an article on the benefits of Maharishi Ayur-Veda--a term which purported to describe an ancient system of healing of India but which in fact is the name of a trade-marked line of products and services introduced in 1985 by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, head of the Transcendental Meditation movement--and, further, upon learning that, contrary to signed statements on JAMA's financial disclosure forms, the three impressively credentialed authors had a strong interest in the marketing and promotion of the TM stuff, JAMA took heroic measures to resuscitate its reputation. In its October issue, following a three-month probe by associate editor Andrew Skolnick, JAMA exposed far more than the numerous consultancies, research grants, directorships, stock ownerships, and other ties to the entrepreneurial yogi's multimillion-dollar business that the authors had somehow forgotten to mention: Skolnick found what appeared to be a widespread pattern of misinformation, deception and manipulation of such news media as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and Harvard Magazine, as well as JAMA and The New England Journal of Medicine. As a result of Skolnick's investigation, TM's health-care business is now being examined by the National Institutes of Health, a congressional subcommittee, and the FDA. Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1992 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear Friends: Thank you very much for informations you have sent us. They are very helpful. Due to reason that our information network is being constructed and our informations may be incomplete, we suppose that the most active cults in our country are: Jehovah Witnesses, cults from the fringe of Christianity and Hare Krshnas. The massive rush of TM from spring and summer 1990 caused a strong counter-attack in medias initiated through experts and escalated through mysterious death of leader of commission that had to investigate activities of TM. TM called us as fanatics unable to accept ``enlightened teaching'' and retreated. Some opinions of Czech experts on TM are enclosed, they aren't final and we will do further research. In connection with the network constructed publicly by TM we enclose also abstract of an article about similar network that have been created in our country. If you know some expert in these problems contact us with him, please. We would like to consult the methods of defense against similar networks. Some Czech experts suppose that TM's intention is not get people nobled onto a higher ideal but tearing down into a slavish dependence on organization that is following the world-govern aims. It tries to get control over the structures of state through misuse of old Indian rituals. Special interest was given to family of our president. TM tries reach change of consiousness in the whole state through construction of a network (1 mislead for 1000 peoples). If the articles are unacceptable for you don't smile and don't condemn us, our aim is help to minimalize the pain and we are looking for most effective methods. We suppose that ignoring of things that cannot see everybody is some kind of fanaticism. We will be eternal for every material you will send us, especially about the New Age movement. It strongly increase now and we have no experiences with problems it can cause. Thank you. Excuse me for my bad English, please. Happy and free year 1991. Yours sincerely, Eastern Europe [Note to Readers: Send us any articles/reports, etc. regarding TM overseas. We're happy to correspond with any contacts you may have also.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear Friends at TM-EX: I want you to know how much I enjoy the newsletter. It is terrific. It is clear how much hard work you put into it. I'd like to make a few comments and suggestions: 1) ``Crime in Fairfield'' is great. Please continue that feature. 2) ``Letters'' is very interesting--please keep that up too. 3) Many of the letters have fascinating questions or ideas for columns. Why not answer the letters: ex: ``Where does the money go?'' 4) I was uncomfortable with your reprinting something from the Washington Times without an editorial note that the W.T. is a Moonie-front paper. 5) People are in different stages regarding TM. I suggest therefore, some more ``background'' articles. Examples: a) How TM fits under Lifton's ``mind control'' definition. b) How the checking notes are hypnosis. c) ``Scientific Research'' charts are biased, fraudulent, etc. (my personal favorite). 6) I still miss my TM friends after all these years. Don't others? How about a network/file/etc. of former TMers who are so interested in connecting up with old friends or shared experiences. File should include which courses we were on. I'm enclosing an SASE just in case you want to respond. Best wishes, Sincerely, Laurie Brandt [Editors' note: For those unfamiliar with the concept, ``Crime'' reports ``violations in natural law'' at ``the home of all the laws of nature,'' currently Fairfield, Iowa. TM has always claimed that practicing TM reduces the crime and accident rate dramatically. Police, state and federal statistics say otherwise. Help us with columns--send articles, essays, research, news clippings. We'll answer the questions if we can. See Summer 1991--it took 108 footnotes to answer the question ``What is Maharishi Ayur-Veda?'' Many of these subjects require enormous documentation, and we plan to continue to cover as much as we can in future issues. We regret that you were uncomfortable with our reprints from the Washington Times. We assume that, by now, the public knows that the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and The Unification Church own the Washington Times. We frequently run notes on Moon and his Church in ``Cults in the News.'' See Winter 1992, for the beginning of a series on thought reform. We have published the TM mantras, advanced techniques, TM-Sidhi program and ``puja'' (TM instruction ceremony) translation in back issues. Write to us for a complete index of back issues, and listings of other available reprints and publications. We'll continue to explain TM from a ``former believer'' viewpoint in future issues. Most former TMers who write us insist on anonymity. Breaking the fear of never revealing TM ``secrets'' often takes many years to overcome. Unless you specify otherwise, we won't print your name. We welcome personal updates from former TMers who are willing to use their names and let others know how they are doing. We are greatly limited by a lack of funding. For over five years, we have sent information to and answered phone calls from all who have asked, without charge. That means hundreds of dollars every month in phone, printing and postage bills, all supported entirely by donations. We are a non-profit educational corporation, and have applied for tax exempt status with the IRS. Please subscribe and help us with operating expenses.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TM-EX: Thanks for the info on TM--you probably saved me from an expensive mistake. S.B., Washington ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear TM-EX: Please sign me up for the TM-EX newsletter, and send me any back issues, if available. I'll gladly pay any fee, if there is one. I've heard the newsletter is helpful. I was heavily involved in TM for 12 years and am out for 1 1/2 years. I left a message on the phone regarding info on any support groups offered. Thanks, Maryland ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear TM-EX: I would like to start off by thanking you for sending me your newsletter, Summer 1991 edition, this past week. I took the time to read each article in the newsletter with an open mind, but at this time in my life I have no need to be a part of your organization. When the time is right for me to join you and your group I will track you down, but until that time I am requesting that you please take me off your mailing list. Thank you for your immediate response to my request. Sincerely, W.F., Maryland ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear TM-EX: I received your newsletter and read it with much interest. My son has been with the movement for eighteen years, and while I have always been somewhat skeptical, I was amazed to read all the negative things about it. Please put me on your mailing list. Thank you. Sincerely, A Parent, MidWest ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To Whom It May Concern: Please remove our names from your mailing. Many of your statements smack of poor taste and mud-slinging. We hope you find fullness another way. As a Governor and TM teacher for over 23 years I find your situation and newsletter sad. Move on to something more life-supporting and fulfilling. Leave TM alone. Thank you. R.F., CO ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hi: Thanks for sending the Summer `91 issue of TM-EX. I was involved from 1970-1980 as a teacher, then Sidha, etc. Spent 3 years with MMY in Switzerland and France. I have had very little contact with the movement for 12 years so I'm a little behind in the events from 1980 on. (I have no idea what ``CIC 28'' referred to in the newsletter is.) I do consider it a fascinating time from the standpoint of group dynamics and group survival behavior. I have been much happier and healthier since I left the movement. Keep up the good work. I've enclosed $50- to get any back issues you can send. Thanks, J.H., CA [Editor's note: ``A Glossary of TM Jargon'' is coming. ``CIC 28'' refers to ``Center Invincibility Course #28.'' That's what the TM-Sidhi course instruction is called when taken at the local TM Center. The final two weeks are taken in residence (usually at Maharishi International University (MIU), where one learns levitation or ``yogic flying.'' ``MMY'' stands for Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the TM movement.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ USA LaRouche, the Jailhouse Candidate The only presidential candidate running his campaign from behind bars is political maverick Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. And it looks like US taxpayers almost helped him finance that campaign. The Federal Election Commission, however voted to deny federal campaign money to him. ``His history is such that there is a continuous pattern of fund-raising that is fraudulent...we can't accept that he won't do it again,'' said FEC general counsel. LaRouche is one of nine Democratic candidates who applied for federal funds to match the campaign contributions they have raised. To qualify, a candidate must raise at least $100,000 from contributors in at least 20 states. Thanks to his minions hustling money in airports across the country, LaRouche will easily meet the requirements. That means he could be taking money from the government that he claims conspired to throw him in jail. (His campaign posters say, ``Lyndon LaRouche for President, the Only Opponent George Bush Feared Enough to Put in Prison.'') LaRouche has been in federal prison since January 1989 after he was convicted of illegal fund-raising and sentenced to 15 years. He could not appear on the ballots of at least 30 states because he is an incarcerated, convicted felon. Jack Anderson/Dale Van Atta, The Washington Post, December 19, 1991; Politics, December 20, 1991 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Biosphere 2 Biosphere 2 has described itself as ``the largest self-sustaining ecosystem ever built.'' The idea is to re-create Earth in a smaller form, to build a materially closed, airtight, stable ecosystem that receives nothing from the outside world but sunlight and electricity. The ultimate goal is to show how humans might permanently colonize other planets. And to have ``cosmic immortality.'' Charges of weird science are snowballing about Biosphere 2. Science, we all like to think, is the last refuge of honest inquiry. It cannot be bought. It cannot be compromised by commercial interests. It cannot be faked. So we like to think. As for the science: Once sealed, B2's ecosystem was to clean and recycle its own air. But a $125,000 carbon dioxide recovery system was secretly installed. A large supply of food--for people and animals--was hidden inside the bubble. Two mechanical ``lungs'' sealed off from outside were supposed to control the environment; instead, outside air was quietly let in. A Biospherian who left to see a doctor sneaked airlock indicators that would allow his colleagues to sneak in and out of the bubble. Most of the plants and animals have been dying off, thanks to a lack of sun. Most insects are dead and a boat daily scoops up all the dead fish. ``Eighty percent of Biosphere 2 is beautiful, legitimate and exciting,'' Lou Hawthorne says, a documentary filmmaker hired by B2 and the University of Phoenix, who spent three months inside, ``And 20 percent is an outrageous, blatant hoax.'' This isn't just an ecological experiment. It's a big business. Biospherians want to expand the tourist portion of the project to handle a million visitors a year, with a resort hotel and conference center, space camp and golf course. The most astonishing thing the tourists aren't told is that B2 is the outgrowth, after many years and many reincarnations, of a 1970s-vintage counterculture commune that called itself, among other things, the ``Synergistic Civilization.'' The group was led by a charismatic, domineering man named John Allen. He implored his followers to become ``actors and scientists.'' He told them Western civilization was dead, that the nuclear family was obsolete. He taught them rituals: group howling, silence during meals. The commune's big break came from a hippie billionaire, Ed Bass, who is the major investor in the $150 million project. ``If anyone's a cult, they're a cult. If you disagree with the program, you're out of there. They demand utmost loyalty from their core group members; you do not question anything...you do it. In exchange for that, first of all they pump you up, they say you're a god, you're the world's foremost expert in whatever,'' Hawthorne says. ``The core group of the Arizona project has little loyalty either to honest and open scientific inquiry or to any ecological quest to save the Earth. Instead, its only allegiance is pledged to one individual, John P. Allen,'' charges The Village Voice. As press coverage has grown more critical, the Biospherians have cracked down harder on any dissent. Employees in November were required to sign a lengthy form promising not to talk to the press, or sue the company, because that might damage the ``good name of the employer,'' which, the employee is forced to ``recognize,'' has invested immense sums of money in ``an environmental research and development facility without parallel on earth.'' ``Biosphere or Biobust?'', Time Magazine, ``Biosphere 2: Bogus New World?''; Joel Achenbach, The Washington Post, January 8, 1991; ``Take This Terrarium and Shove It,'' Mark Cooper, Village Voice, April 7, 1991~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life, by Thomas Gilovich. An investigation of how even highly educated people become convinced of the validity of questionable or demonstrably false beliefs about the world, and the unfortunate impact of these beliefs. Cultic Studies Journal: Psychological Manipulation and Society. A refereed semi-annual journal published by the American Family Foundation (AFF), P.O. Box 2265, Bonita Springs, FL 33959. The CSJ seeks to advance the understanding of cultic practices and their relation to society, including broad social and cultural implications as well as effects on individuals and families. Cult Awareness Network (CAN) News, 2421 West Pratt Blvd., Suite 1173, Chicago, IL 60645, (312) 267-7777. Founded to educate the public about the harmful effects of mind control as used by destructive cults. CAN confines its concerns to unethical or illegal practices, including coercive persuation, and passes no judgment or doctrine or beliefs. Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, by R.J. Lifton, M.D. A classic textbook and case study on victims of thought reform and the elements of thought reform programs. Heaven on Earth: Dispatches From America's Spiritual Frontier, by Michael D'Antonio. A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter visits America's spiritual communities including MIU, Fairfield, Iowa. [see review above] Skeptical Inquirer, Box 229, Buffalo, NY 14215. Journal of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, which attempts to encourage the critical investigation of paranormal and fringe-science claims from a responsible, scientific point of view. NCAHF Newsletter (National Council Against Health Fraud), P.O. Box 1276, Loma Linda, CA 92354. To aid in activism against health fraud, misinformation and quackery. Combatting Cult Mind Control, by Steven Hassan. MUST reading for anyone who has been touched by cult phenomena. TM and Cult Mania, by M.A. Persinger, Ph.D. An in-depth investigation into the claims of TM, hypnosis and research. Influence: The New Psychology of Modern Persuasion, by Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D. A landmark publication in furthering our understanding of the persuasion process. Books and full reprints of most articles are available from TM-EX. ~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WHAT IS TM-EX? Transcendental Meditation EX-Members Support Group (TM-EX) was founded by former Maharishi International University (MIU) faculty, students, TM teachers, sidhas, meditators, and caring relatives of members of the TM movement. TM-EX is a support network to help former and current members of the TM movement in making the transition to life outside the TM movement. As former members, we have experienced the transition and are available to assist you. WHAT DO WE DO? We are a referral network and source of information to movement members, former members, exit counselors, family members and experienced therapists and professionals. THE TM-EX newsletter is a forum for a varitety of opinions that often cannot be expressed within the movement without fear of reprisal. Contributors do not represent any particular philosophy, opinion or lifestyle. Although numerous religious based groups have challenged TM in the past, TM-EX is not affiliated with any of these. Its members come from a wide variety of religious and philosophical backgrounds. What we do have in common, is our desire to assist those leaving the movement; to make the public aware of the fraud within the movement; and the physical and psychological harm, that has resulted for many, from the practices of the TM Program. We welcome your input: comments, articles, letters, help with printing and postage. Call or write TM-EX: P.O. Box 7565, Arlington, VA 22207 (202) 728-7580 [All telephone calls will be returned collect.}